Swing into my Heart
by queen-sheep
Summary: [Muggle!AU] The club they were heading to was right at the center of town. At night, when all their fancy smancy customers left to retire for bed, a couple of musicians always stayed behind and they never minded playing music for the youth that gathered to dance. Swing dance, in particular.


_Song: Uptown Funk by Mark Ronson ft. Bruno Mars_

 _Mostly inspired by the confidence and feel good, get out on a Saturday night type of feel from the song!_

* * *

Someone was pounding incessantly on his bedroom door.

"What's taking you so long to get ready, you git?"

Sirius, then.

James elected to ignore him and leaned forward to examine himself in the mirror instead. His hair was slicked back to perfection and his suit hung a little baggy on him, as was the style these days. He was in top form today, if he said so himself.

"I can feel my balls shriveling off here!"

("Sirius!" came a faint admonishment from downstairs.

"Sorry Mrs. Potter," was the weak reply back.)

"Okay, I'm coming!" James said finally, satisfied. He roughly pushed his bedroom door open, snickering in amusement when Sirius squacked in alarm and jumped out of the way.

The two of them headed downstairs and past the open door of the living room.

"I'll be back late!" James called to his mom.

"Don't have _too_ much fun," his mom said good naturedly. "And lock the door behind you!"

James hummed an agreement, and then they were out the door. At this time of night, most of the crowd has died down. They only passed by a couple of stragglers hunched up against the cold as they hurried home, the street lamps casting long shadows on them as they walked.

"You always have to be fashionably late, don't you mate," Sirius teased.

James openly scoffed at that. "You're one to talk, mister always late to class."

Sirius shrugged. "That's class — it's different. Who willingly spends any more time than necessary there?"

"Fair point. But besides, you can't be late if you're the star of the show," James said, winking.

Sirius laughed and shoved him, but they both sped up their pace up anyways.

The club they were heading to was right at the center of town. It would be just like any other jazz club, except at night, when all their fancy smancy customers left to retire for bed, a couple of musicians always stayed behind and they never minded playing music for the youth that gathered to dance.

Swing dance, in particular. It was all the rave these days.

As they approached the building, he could hear the faint strains of music seeping out of the cracks in the closed doors. He could hear whistling and cheering as someone performed a particularly impressive move. James and Sirius glanced at each other and grinned. Familiar excitement was beginning to course through his veins and his heartbeat picked up accordingly. They pushed the doors open and stepped in.

It was Frank Longbottom who noticed them first.

"Hey!" he greeted, face flushed with the kind of glow that only came after a couple rounds of dancing. "You made it!"

James grinned. "Yeah, me and Sirius—" he looked around, but Sirius had already disappeared. Gone to find Remus, most likely. James rolled his eyes.

"I was getting ready and lost track of time," he explained, but Frank's attention had already drifted to somewhere behind his shoulder.

His entire demeanour lit up. Seconds later, Alice joined their little group.

"Hullo!" she said. "I could barely get out the house — you know how my mum is — but I'm here now!"

"That you are," James agreed. "And can I ask for a dance before Frank steals you away for the night?"

Alice giggled at that, her cheeks turning a rosy pink. Frank coughed into his hand to hide a little smile.

"Sure!" Alice agreed easily. James offered an arm and she took it gracefully as they moved to the dance floor.

They started off slowly, both of them warming up for their first dance of what promised to be a fruitful night. As they became more comfortable, James caught Alice's eye. At her responding grin, he lifted her up and flipped her, the crowd surrounding them cheering them on.

After a few more twists and turns, the song wound to an end. Alice smiled in amusement and waved a goodbye, and James sent her off with a grandiose bow before heading off to find another partner.

…

It was halfway into the night, when he was more than a little drunk, that he glimpsed a redhead at the bar in the corner.

And not just any redhead. Without even thinking, James pushed through the crowd to get to the bar.

"And how's the most beautiful person in the world doing tonight?" he asked, sliding into the seat next to her.

"I don't know, how are you?" Lily Evans asked, tilting her head up at him, a quiet smirk playing at the corners of her mouth.

James had met Lily for the first time at this club, and she'd immediately caught his eye as she killed it on the dance floor. With the lights on her and the confidence exuding from her very being, he had fallen in love just like that. Then they started talking and then they started dancing together, and it had all spiralled into the weird back and forth thing between them now.

"Do you want to dance?" James chanced. He raised a hopeful eyebrow.

"I thought you'd never ask," Lily said, beaming. She ditched her drink at the counter. "Let's go."

At the sight of the two, the dance floor cleared. James hadn't been bragging (much) when he had claimed to be the best dancer in the club. Lily was among the best too, and together the two of them had a kind of electric energy on the dance floor.

James caught her hands as they started getting into the groove of it. There was a wolf whistle from the edges of the crowd that James was fairly certain came from Sirius.

Lily did a simple twirl, her loose skirts flaring out around her. James winked at her and her resounding grin was enough of an answer that her lifted her above his back. As soon as she landed, she slid smoothly between his legs and then got right back up, all in the same move.

The crowd burst into cheers.

...

At the end of the set, Lily and James both bowed to the crowd and left. James still had a lingering hold on her fingers. Before, she would've pulled away, but she hadn't yet, and just that fact was making him feel giddy.

She tugged him over to the door and James followed her, curious.

"See you next time," she said. Then she stepped forward and pecked him straight on the lips. With one last smirk, she was gone.

James stood at the entranceway, stunned. It wasn't until much, much later that his friends found him still standing there, a dopey smile on his lips.


End file.
